


In My Veins

by Miss_AnnaChan



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crimes & Criminals, Drama, F/M, Organized Crime, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-03 23:51:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15829458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_AnnaChan/pseuds/Miss_AnnaChan
Summary: After Detective Shinya was personally requested to work a missing person’s case, she and her partner try to uncover all the links and clues to finding these victims before they turn up dead.  To complicate matters, she needs the help of a K-9 obsessed detective that wants nothing to do with the case.  Can she convince him to work with her, not against her?  Or will she be trapped in a deadly partnership?





	1. The Station

**Author's Note:**

> It's been awhile since I've written anything. Please be kind! Most of my free time is on the weekends so hopefully you'll catch any updates then! Thanks for reading :)

Nanami popped two slices of bread into the toaster and reached up into the cabinet to feel around her almost barren shelves. She jumped up to see a lonely cup hugging the back of the cabinet wall. Damn, her height. If she wasn’t being made fun of for it, she was experiencing the pains of it. Nanami climbed onto the counter to grab the last cup and then jumped down. She really needed to do dishes she thought as she glanced at the huge stack that was sitting in the sink. 

Pouring herself a glass of orange juice, she turned the volume of the TV up. The lady on the news with the perfect hair was briefing a missing person’s case. Nanami touched her auburn hair self-consciously. Most of the time her hair was a frizzy mess that she kept pulled back in some way. Occasionally her hair fell in perfect ringlets, but that was once in a blue moon when the weather was just right. 

“A young nurse has been missing for the last 48 hours. That’s three medical personnel from this month alone that’s gone missing in Tokyo. Officials are still investigating the three cases and are hoping to find a link that will lead to some answers. Hopefully, before it’s too late,” perfect hair lady said grimly. Nanami sighed as she took the last bite of her avocado toast. 

Nanami glanced at the clock and her eyes almost bugged out of her head. “I’m gunna be late!”

She turned the TV off and grabbed her bag before sprinting out the door. Good thing her job required her to be a skilled sprinter. She crossed a street and slid across the hood of an almost stopped car. She heard a honk from behind her, but she continued ahead anyways. No one was going to think twice about a cop sprinting through the streets. 

Nanami had been the smallest of her class in the academy. Her height has never stopped her though. If anything her height was a strength because men always underestimated her. She made sure that all the guys in her class ate their words when they told her she wouldn’t make it.

She sprinted up the stairs to the train station and bolted through the doors just as they were closing. Nanami panted as citizens around her stared at her or nervously looked around for a threat. “It’s okay,” she said breathlessly. “I’m just running late to work,” she gasped and held onto a bar as the train started rolling forward. 

As she stared off into the rolling landscape of the city, she thought of that case with the medical personnel. Something about it seemed strange, but familiar. Didn’t something like that happen two years ago? Or was it three? It ended with a dead nurse or was she a paramedic? Nanami had been working the streets when that happened. Detectives are required to have at a minimum two years of street time. Now she just did it for fun every now and then to get her blood flowing. It was hard to look at murder scene after murder scene. Luckily for her district, she always solved the cases. In the past year, she’s made at least three trips to other cities within Japan to solve their cases. Her partner was half annoyed with all the traveling, but she didn’t think he minded getting away from the city. He always complained that all the buildings disrupted his artistic skills. She almost laughed aloud on the train at the thought of him.

The train came to a complete stop and she walked out knowing she had plenty of time to make it to the station. Her only challenge was making the train. It seemed like she was almost late every morning. She felt exhausted just thinking about having to sprint to work. Nanami passed a storefront with TVs. The news was on and showing a young face of a woman that was missing. Her stomach sank knowing that she might turn up dead. More times than not, that’s how these stories turned out. 

“Why the long face Nanami-kun?” the familiar voice of her partner asked. Nanami looked up to see her long blonde-haired partner studying her face. 

“This story,” she replied and looked towards to storefront again. “We both know how it’ll turn out.”

“Yeah unfortunately,” Deidara sighed and took his side next to her. They continued to walk up to the front of the station. “That’s why we chose this job though. To try to prevent and deter things like this from happening and to bring justice to evil doers!” he said goofily as they both got out their badges and scanned them. Deidara put in his pin and walked in. He waited for Nanami to scan through before continuing down the hallway. 

They both made their way to the break room to grab their first cup of joe before the start of shift. Deidara poured coffee into his paper cup. Deidara has graffitied all over it. “Your cup looks like half the buildings in the city,” Nanami said teasingly. Deidara almost dropped his coffee.

“How dare you compare my art to that garbage!” he said insulted and Nanami laughed trying not to drop her cup as she poured herself some. She always like to mess with him. It was easy to get him worked up. It was nice for a change since the guys at the station always gave her crap for her height. She returned the favor by instigating fights with Deidara. 

“My bad Dei-chan,” Nanami chuckled and took a sip of her coffee. “Don’t mind anything I say. I’m uncultured when it comes to art.”

“And it’s a god damn tragedy! How can anyone expect me to work under these conditions? As my partner, you should know and understand what real art is,” Deidara said passionately.

“I’ll work on it.” Nanami set her coffee down to add a little more hazelnut cream to it. There’s only so much you can do to make the sludge drinkable. She loved her coffee, but some of these losers needed a class in coffee-making. How they turned precious coffee into sludge that tasted like tar, she’d never know. 

Deidara and Nanami punched into work at the top of the hour. With seaming cups of coffee in hand, they made their way to the lieutenant’s office. “I wonder what’s in store for us today,” Deidara wondered aloud and took a small sip of his coffee. He made a small face of disgust in the process. He probably added too much coffee to his sugar. 

“I don’t care as long as it’s different that the usual crime scenes,” Nanami replied and smiled up at her partner. She reached up to push the supervisor’s office door open, but Deidara beat her to it. He pushed it open with one arm and waited for her to pass through. 

“After you, milady.” Nanami eyed him evilly. She didn’t like when he treated her like that, but he just did it to get on her nerves. Nanami walked into the office and stood in front of Lieutenant Darui. Deidara shuffled in after her and stood nonchalantly to the side. Darui shuffled through some papers on his desk, as if searching for something. Deidara cleared his throat, hinting at the Lieutenant that they were both standing before him. Darui glanced up from his search.

“Ah, sorry,” he muttered when he noticed the two of them standing there. “We have a hording situation in the Shinta district that needs taken care of. Go ahead and take a squad car with you,” he added and tossed Deidara the keys. Nanami held out her hand. 

“I don’t think so shorty,” Deidara said excitedly. “Dei-chan is driving today!”

“Please don’t regard to yourself in the third person,” Nanami replied in annoyance. Lt. Darui cleared his throat.

“Please get out of my office.”

“Yes sir!” they both replied in unison and scuttled out the door.  
*  
*  
*  
The train finally came to a stop and Nanami looked up from the shoes she was staring at. She sighed and dragged her feet as she got off the train onto the platform. She was so exhausted, she really didn’t feel like walking home from the station. She didn’t have much choice though.

Nanami walked down the stairs and towards the crosswalk. She looked up and saw the red hand and leaned against the light post. A couple next to her was holding hands. The girl was leaning against her boyfriend’s shoulder and hugging his arm. Nanami thought of her non-existent love life. The only man she really spoke to on the regular was her partner, Deidara, and he hardly counted as a man. Deidara was always trying to get her to go out, but she was always too exhausted after street work or too brain fried after solving cases. She didn’t understand how he had the energy to do all of that. 

The crosswalk sign turned into the white walking figure and the couple started to cross. Nanami shook the cloud hanging above her head and continued forward. She remembered when she met Deidara at the station. He’d been working the streets when he was assigned as her partner. She was surprised that he wasn’t resentful that he had to take a rookie as his partner. Deidara had smiled at her and then showed her around that station and explained most things to her. She was thankful that he became her partner, even if he was a little strange.

Nanami stopped in front of her apartment door and fished keys out of her uniform pants. She unlocked her front door and went inside to throw herself on the couch. She wasn’t going to move, but then she thought of that hording situation and felt like germs were crawling all over her. “I’m bound to get sick after that mess,” she mumbled and groaned as she pulled herself up off of the couch. She kicked her boots off and shimmied out of her uniform. She turned on the water to the bath and poured some lavender oil into it to help her relax. Nanami grabbed her iPad from her nightstand and sank into the water.

Nanami had been thinking about the case all day. Something seemed weird about it so she pulled up Safari on her iPad and did some research. She looked through some articles about the current case before deciding to look up the case she thought of from a couple years ago. All of the kidnapping situations were familiar. The only thing that was different was the fact that none of the current kidnapped people had turned up dead yet. She hoped that it wasn’t the same. The three year old case was still unsolved and it made Nanami sick to her stomach. Most of the speculations said that the yakuza did it, but what would be the motive?

Nanami’s phone rang, breaking her train of thought. “Detective Shinya,” she said into the phone.

“Detective Shinya, this is Lieutenant Sarutobi from the Tokyo Police Force.” Nanami looked at her phone in disbelief for a second. Why was such a top dog calling her? Shouldn’t he be calling Lt. Darui? “Detective Shinya?”

“Y-Yes Sir!” she replied a little startled. Maybe the warm bath was getting to her.

“Have you heard of the missing medical person case?”

“Y-Yes sir, I have.” Nanami cursed under her breath because of her nervous stuttering.

“I would like you to report to our headquarters to help us work this case.”

“I would love to, but you should probably go through my boss,” Nanami replied.

“Leave him to me. Will you do it?” he asked.

“What about my partner?”

“What about him?”

“I need my partner with me.”

“Consider it done. Notify him, you both start on Monday. I’ll have someone meet you at the front desk Monday morning.”

“T-Thank you, Sir!” Nanami stammered and she heard a click on the other side. She mentally slapped herself for sounding like such a ditz. She immediately hit the pound sign and the number one to speed dial her partner.

“Nami-chan! Did you change your mind? Want to go out and party with me?”

“Just out of curiosity, what is your idea of party?” she asked slightly amused.

“We could hit the downtown club, get drunk, and make fools of ourselves.”

“I’ll pass.”

“So what do I owe the pleasure then?”

“I was made an offer to work on THE case,” Nanami said putting emphasis on it.

“The missing person’s case?”

“Yeah, and you’re going with me,” she replied.

“You requested for me to come with you?” Dei-chan gushed. “I feel so special!”

“Yeah yeah,” Nanami grumbled. “Don’t ruin it.”

“When do we start?” he asked sounding more serious.

“We start on Monday. We basically have the weekend to read up on the case. I just received a couple emails on the case already. So I’ll forward them to you so we can both be on the same page. If you want, we can meet Sunday for coffee and discuss it.”

“As you wish,” Deidara replied huskily and hung up. Nanami placed her phone on the side of the tub and sank down further into the bubbles. Her stomach was in knots. She was excited to solve this case, but she was also afraid that she wouldn’t be able to. Whoever was behind the last case knew how to cover their tracks, but then again they weren’t up against the best duo in the city. Nanami convinced herself that she was going to take them down.


	2. The Case

Nanami made her way to the coffee shop with a stack of files in her hands. She had spent most of Saturday morning in her office printing off the files that were sent to her for the missing person’s case. She already had a couple possible leads to go over with Deidara however, the tough one was going to be the Yakuza. Starting a war with them was basically suicide, but she had to come from any angle possible in order to solve this case.

Deidara saw Nanami walk up to the front door of the coffee shop and he hopped up to help hold the door open for her. She scurried over to a table and set the folders down. The weight of them made a soft thud on the table. “Have enough files?” Deidara teased his over-prepared partner.

“You know we have to look at all aspects of these cases,” she scolded him. Deidara threw his hands up in surrender noticing that she was all business today.

“I know. Jeez,” Deidara sulked. He watched Nanami organize the folders in four different stacks and his heart fluttered a bit. He loved when she was like this and to add to it she was astonishingly beautiful today. Nanami’s auburn hair was braided and pulled to one side. She had on a cute pencil skirt and a teal button down that made her hair really stand out.

“What?” she asked when she looked up and noticed that her partner was staring at her.

“I asked you what you were going to drink,” Deidara lied. “You were so focused on those papers, I guess you didn’t hear me.”

Nanami blushed. “Oh, sorry. I’ll take an iced latte,” she answered.

“Hazelnut?”

Nanami smiled and nodded in response. Deidara then wandered over to the counter to put in his order. As he ordered he watched Nanami return to working on the folders. Almost everything was in order for her to go over the case with him. Nanami reached into her bag and grabbed two pads of paper with pencils for them to take notes.

Nanami took a seat at the table and got her pencil and paper ready. She patiently waited for Deidara to bring their drinks to the table so she could get started on this case. Deidara set a large iced coffee in front of his partner then took a seat next to her. “Alright, let’s get this party started,” he said and cracked his knuckles enthusiastically. 

“Alright, let’s go over the first person that went missing this month from the hospital,” Nanami instructed and pointed to his file. Since it was in front of Deidara, he opened it and spread the papers out. “Aki Tenzo,” she read his name aloud. “He’s a doctor at the hospital and aside from the medical person link, I don’t see a reason why he was abducted.”

“Accident?” Deidara inquired.

“Probable,” Nanami said seriously and wrote some notes down on her paper. “If the others have a different thing in common then we can try looking from that angle and see what we can find. Just because it’s not written here, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”

“Next case! Deidara reached over to another folder and opened it. Hinata Hyuga was a nurse at the same hospital. She has a cousin on the police force and the Hyuga clan is known to have some ties to the Yakuza.”

“Right, the Hyuga clan is either in the police force or in the Yakuza. Hinata was one of the few that branched off into medical, but I don’t think that’s a motive to kidnap her. Maybe the Yakuza wants to send a message to the police department?”

“Also possible,” Deidara replied and they both made notes.

“Next case,” Nanami opened a folder and spread out the papers. “This is the latest person to go missing this month. Her name is Kurenai Sarutobi,” Nanami froze remembering her phone call from last night. 

“What’s wrong?”

“Sarutobi…Lt. Sarutobi contacted me about the case last night,” Nanami answered. “He might be related to her which would confirm the police link.”

“Wouldn’t they put him on leave?”

Nanami gave her partner a look. “If someone you loved was kidnapped would you go on leave if you could help it?” she asked her partner seriously. They both knew that if you had enough power in the force, you could do pretty much anything. 

“Touché,” Deidara replied. “She also works at the hospital in the pediatric ward. That confirms the medical link.”

“So all three have a medical link and two out of three have a link within the police force. We need to look into Aki Tenzo to see if he has any police connections.”

“We should probably look into Yakuza connections too so we can rule that out,” Deidara suggested.

“Makes sense.”

Deidara noticed another folder and pointed to it. “What about that file?” he asked.

“I’m not too sure about it but it’s from years ago. The case was similar and it was never closed.”

“You think it might be connected?” Deidara asked his partner.

“I have a hunch,” she replied and opened it. “Rin Uchiha went missing about two years ago. She was a paramedic and she was the wife of a detective named Obito Uchiha.”

“That confirms two of the links we’re looking at. What happened to her?”

“She was killed and dumped in an alley,” Nanami replied solemnly and started collecting the papers to put back into the folders.

“They never solved it,” Deidara stated and leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head. He stared up at the ceiling, deep in thought.

Nanami stacked all the folders and looked at her partner. “We made a lot of progress today,” she stated and grabbed the stack as she stood up.

“What’s the rush?” Deidara asked and grabbed his partner’s wrist. “We can stay and chat about other things. I don’t like leaving on a heavy note.”

Nanami set the stack back down on the table and took her seat again. “Okay, I guess.”

“I want to walk you home too,” Deidara replied sounding a little concerned.

“You think the boogie man is gunna get me?” she asked teasing him a little.

Deidara didn’t crack a smile. “We both know something is going on here. Until we can clear up the police link, we should probably move forward cautiously.”

Nanami stared at his serious look. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Deidara slowly cracked a smile. “I’ll mark that on my calendar. Deidara was right on Sund-“

Nanami pinched her partner’s arm cutting him off. He winced and started rubbing his arm where she pinched him. “Stop fooling around,” she said with a smile. 

“Yes ma’am!”  
*  
*  
*  
Deidara held the door open as Nanami walked out of the coffee shop with her files hugged to her chest. She was glad Deidara wanted to stick around and talk about non-case work. If she had left on that note, she would have definitely worked on it all night. She had a tendency to over work her cases and show up extremely tired. Deidara knew her too well.

“Do you mind if I take you to work tomorrow?” Deidara asked her seriously. She could tell that he was thinking of the missing women.

“You have a car?” she teased him. “Why haven’t you offered me a ride this whole time?”

“I asked Darui to give me an unmarked car. I can’t have my partner getting kidnapped on her way to solve the case.”

“What makes you think that they won’t kidnap you?” she teased.

“Because you’re cuter than me,” Deidara replied matter-of-factly.

Nanami blushed. “Yeah I guess so. Even if they did kidnap you, they would definitely bring you back because you’re so annoying.”

Deidara looked at his partner, amused. “Is that so?”

Nanami stuck her tongue out and they both laughed. Deidara took a mental picture of his partner. He loved the way she smiled because when Nanami smiled, it wasn’t just her mouth. It was her cheeks puffing out, her eyes closing, and her nose crinkling up. She was charming and had a bewitching effect on him. He felt butterflies in his stomach and forced himself to look away. He knew that having feelings for his partner could jeopardize their team. He bundled up his feelings and stuck them in a dark place within himself.

They finally approached her apartment door and Deidara reached over to grab the files from Nanami while she fished for her apartment keys. “This is quaint,” he replied looking around. He had never been to her place and he was surprised that she lived so far away from work. He wished he didn’t know because now that he knew, he would constantly worry about her making it to the station. Maybe he could buy a car or move closer to her?

“Yeah, it’s not too bad,” she replied breaking his train of thought. She opened the door and walked inside. Deidara followed and placed the files on her counter.

“Is this a good spot?” he asked her looking around.

Nanami took off her blazer and hung it up in a small closet by the front door. “Yeah that’ll work,” she answered and walked over to her cabinet. She opened the door and looked up at the wine glasses. She needed to relax. Deidara noticed that she was about to hop up on the counter to grab something. The corner of his mouth pulled up in a smile. 

Nanami felt Deidara behind her as she was about to jump up. His hard body pressed against her backside as he reached over her to get a glass down for her. She smelt his cologne. It had an earthy scent to it like mahogany or something woodsy. “Thanks,” she said and looked over her shoulder at her partner.

Deidara froze thinking of his next move. He wanted to lean down and press his lips on her dainty mouth, but then thought about their work environment and how their teamwork was essential. He backed away and placed the glass in her hand. “No problem Nami-chan,” he replied huskily and walked over to her window to look out into the city landscape. 

Nanami noticed that he was acting a little weird. He was being more serious than usual and she wondered if maybe the case was bothering him. The police link almost made it feel personal to her. She wondered if he felt the same way. “We’re going to solve this case, Dei-chan. Don’t worry,” she said confidently. 

Deidara turned around to look at his partner. He started with her beautiful braided auburn hair pulled to one side and moved onto her confident expression. His eyes traveled down to her button down teal shirt and the way that it was unbuttoned at the top to almost give him a peak at her cleavage. He moved his eyes away and cleared his throat. “I know you’ll solve the case.   
You always do,” he replied with a smile and shuffled over to the door. “I’ll come by in the morning to get you.”

“See you tomorrow,” Nanami replied and closed the door behind Deidara as he left her apartment. She bolted the door and went over to the files. She stared at them for a minute before deciding to take them to her office. She fought the urge to dig through the files again. Nanami knew if she started now, she’d be going all night and be close to worthless tomorrow morning when going over the case with headquarters. She had to be at her best tomorrow. People’s lives were depending on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! That's all the chapters I have saved up so the rest will come on the weekend :)


	3. Headquarters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty! Sorry I didn't post this sooner :/ I've been under the weather.

Nanami woke up before the sun even rose, her mind ticking with plans and motives for the case. She rolled over and smashed a pillow over her head as she started to count sheep that slowly transformed into files and faces of victims. Why couldn’t she focus on anything else, like much needed sleep? She knew that she was going to be dragging later on in the evening, but she couldn’t manage to clear her mind. For all she knew, they might work her til next week. Nanami didn’t really know what to expect. She only knew that she was going to give every ounce of energy to this case.

Nanami sat up, glancing at the clock with a moan in the back of her throat as she noticed the time. It wasn’t even six o’clock yet, but she got up anyways (it’s not like she could sleep) knowing that it would take at least an hour to tame her hair. The humidity lately was ridiculous and she was on the verge of having an aphro. She could only imagine the amount of teasing she would get from her perfect-haired partner. Deidara’s hair was always straight and perfect, tied back into a ponytail, his blonde bangs slightly covering his icy-blue eyes.

Shuffling into the bathroom, Nanami flipped on the light switch blinding herself in the process. She avoided looking at the mirror knowing that her hair was sticking up in all directions as if she’d put a fork into an outlet. As she rounded the corner, she found herself in her walk-in closet and studied the amount of business casual attire she had. She wasn’t really sure what to wear today, but she didn’t want to look too uptight because she wanted to look approachable to her new partners. She also didn’t want to look like a scrub like some of the men do at the station, rolling her eyes at the thought. Nanami finally settled on a white, button-down blouse with a burgundy blazer and black slacks. She decided to go with black pumps to look a little taller. Now the real task was to conquer her hair.  
*  
*  
*  
Deidara pulled up in front of Nanami’s adorable little apartment complex. Lt. Darui had let him roll with a black Toyota Camry only until this case was solved. He had been surprised the LT was okay with it, but he was also extremely grateful that he didn’t have to sacrifice his blonde hair worrying about his cute partner. He wasn’t really feeling like black was the best option in the summer, but it was either this car or not-so-reliable Chevy Malibu that usually took up space in the back of the lot. Deidara whipped his phone out of his pocket about to dial his soon-to-be-late partner when he noticed someone move in his peripheral. 

Nanami walked very carefully in her pumps up to the unmarked car. Thank God Lt. Darui let them take the Camry. She did not want to be broken down on the side of the road in that Malibu on her first day. She leaned down, slightly taller with the pumps on, and opened her car door. “Well damn,” said her partner as he slid his phone back into his pocket. He was dressed just as nice with a light blue dress shirt and black pants. Nanami guessed that he had a black blazer to match, draped across the backseat of the Camry. “You’re really excited about this case, eh?”

“I just want to make a good impression. I feel like the last resort and I want them to know that they’re in good hands. Is that so bad?” she replied defensively and Deidara reached over to pat her knee. 

“I’m just teasing you, Nanami-chan. Although, with them heels on, you might just make more than a good impression if you know what I mean,” Deidara added, wiggling his eyebrows which was definitely deserving of the smack he received from his partner.

“Please just focus on getting us to work on time,” Nanami retorted, crossing her arms and looking out the window.  
*  
*  
*  
Deidara pulled into the parking garage of Tokyo Police Headquarters; the dark shadows of the garage danced in the headlights of the Camry. Once the car was pulled into a parking spot and placed in park, Deidara glanced over at his partner and noticed that she was biting her lip. “Nervous?”

Nanami looked up at her partner and forced a smile as she reached for the door handle. “Maybe a little,” she admitted opening the door. Deidara followed suit and went to help his partner by grabbing the stack of papers from her. “I can get it,” she mumbled stubbornly, but Deidara still held onto her things. 

“I know Nami-chan. I’m just lightening your load a bit,” he replied clicking the lock button on the car key fob. He smiled down at her and motioned for them to go inside. Nanami followed, her hands sweating a bit from nervousness. She rubbed her hands on her black pants repeatedly. 

Once they were inside headquarters, they were both bombarded by the smells of a normal office. The smell of coffee, papers, and stress filled their nostrils as they continued down the hallway towards the reception area where hopefully they would be led in the right direction. As they approached the desk, they noticed a red-headed secretary with black glasses and piercing red eyes typing diligently on the computer in front of her. “One second, Detective Shinya,” she said not even glancing up. Nanami was a little shocked since she knew who she was, but she’d never met this secretary in her life. 

Nanami looked nervously up at her partner who was too busy checking out the office to notice. The secretary punched in some final keys angrily before turning to the two outsiders. “I’ll take you to Lt. Sarutobi,” she replied, all business as she stood up from her desk. 

“Nice to meet you too,” Deidara muttered under his breath and followed Nanami and the flame haired secretary down another hallway and to the right. Walking all the way down to the end of the hall and up to fogged-out glass double doors, the secretary stopped in front of them. She pushed one open then announced the guests to whom Nanami assumed was the Lieutenant. “Detective Shinya and her partner are here.”

“Nope, definitely don’t have a name,” Deidara muttered again and this time the secretary shot him a nasty look. 

“And this is Lieutenant Sarutobi. Now that you’ve met, I’ll take my leave,” she said and hustled out of the room. 

“Don’t mind Karin. She’s always all business. Anyways, thank you both for coming,” he said sincerely holding out his hand. Nanami reached over the desk and shook it. As she looked up at him, she noticed the darkness circling his eyes like sharks in the water. It was very apparent that he was missing someone, possibly his wife, and he could hardly sleep because of it. She could only imagine the thoughts that tormented him at night.

“I would like to get to work as soon as possible. My partner, Deidara, and I have been studying the files that you sent me along with some others that I dug up. I would like to work with some of your detectives that are familiar with the case,” Nanami said getting straight to the business. She felt bad for this sleepless man. 

“I’ll take you to them,” he replied.

Nanami and Deidara were led down the hall once more and into a room with white boards covering the walls. She took note of all the writing that covered the boards. It should all be somewhat useful information. There was a group, she noticed, huddling around a board in the back of the room, their backs towards them. One detective had long dark hair that draped over his white dress shirt and was tied off down by his belt. Another detective had short black hair to match his black short sleeved dress shirt. The one with brown hair tied up into a ponytail took notice of the two partners and stood up to come greet them and the Lieutenant.

“Glad you could make it,” he said lazily and took the hand that was in his pocket and held it out to the two outsiders. Deidara took hold of his hand and shook it.

“I’m Deidara and this is my partner, Nanami,” he replied letting go of the detective’s hand so that it could return to the detective’s pocket.

“I’ll leave you to it then,” Lt. Sarutobi said and left dragging his feet a little. Nanami watched him worriedly. 

“His wife is missing,” the detective answered what he thought she was thinking. “I don’t think he’s slept since.”

“Let’s get to work then,” Nanami replied and the detective led them over to the group.

“I’m Shikamaru Nara,” he said and pointed to each of his partners in order to introduce everybody. “Sasuke Uchiha,” he pointed at the short black haired male. “And Neji Hyuuga,” gesturing to the long haired stud. Nanami recognized two of their last names and made a mental note to ask them about it later. “Guys, this is the detective and her partner, Deidara.”

Both men nodded in acknowledgement and turned their attention back to the board. “I guess we should get you up to speed on what we have so far,” Sasuke replied and started to go over the background of the case and each victim that has gone missing in the last three weeks.

From what information they gave her, they were only seeing the medical link. Each of the personnel that went missing, were medical personnel is some way, shape, or form. Two out of the three, Nanami knew were connected to the police. And that unclosed case from a couple years ago definitely had a medical and police link to it. If she considered that case, then it was a solid three out of four with both police and medical connections. “So what do you guys think?” Shikamaru asked her, breaking her train of thought.

“Have you considered a police link?” she asked and they all looked thoughtfully at the board. 

“At first yes, but only two of the three had family members on the force.”

“And Aki Tenzo,” she probed, “does he have any connections to the police at all?”

“I saw Aki Tenzo hanging out with Hatake a couple times before,” Sasuke muttered thoughtfully. “It could be possible that we’ve been looking at this all wrong.”

“So there is a police tie,” Nanami said with confidence. She walked over to the board and started writing under each of their pictures. There was already the hospital info written under their names and now as she added more facts, there was the police connection written out.

“Have you considered anything else?” Neji asked clearly impressed with Nanami’s intellect. Deidara shot him a quick glare.

“A couple things, actually,” Nanami answered. “We know that Hinata has ties with the Yakuza.”

“My cousin,” Neji clarified looking a little annoyed. “What does that Yakuza have anything to do with? I doubt my family members, scum as they may be, would hurt blood.”

“Are you certain they have no beef going on with the Yakuza?”

“I guess I can’t be totally certain. I think they would have at least mentioned it to me after Hinata went missing.”

“Does anyone else have ties with the Yakuza?”

Shikamaru cleared his throat. “Not that we know of,” he answered.

“We will need to look into that. I guess I can question Detective Hatake about his friend Tenzo later.”

“Good luck,” Sasuke retorted. “He doesn’t really talk much to anyone nowadays. He’s too busy training his dogs in the K9 unit.”

“It doesn’t hurt to try.”

“What was the other thing that you considered?” Shikamaru inquired trying to bring them back on track.

“It was a case from almost three years ago,” Deidara interjected before Nanami had the chance. She didn’t have to do all the talking. “Her name was Rin Uchiha and she was married to a detective named Obito who was on the force at the time. She was also in the medical field.”

Sasuke choked on his coffee when he heard the name. “You sure this is connected?”

“No, but all the connections are there. Is there any way I can speak with Obito about it?” Nanami asked.

“No one has seen or heard from him since he quit the force. After his wife was found dead, he couldn’t handle the job anymore,” Sasuke answered. “Maybe you can ask Hatake about it when you talk to him. I’m sure he’d love to talk about how his partner’s wife was found dead.”

Deidara stepped towards Sasuke with his fists clenched. What the hell was this guy’s deal? Nanami was here to help and he was being a complete ass! Nanami pressed a firm hand on his chest and he felt his body relax a little. “It’s okay Dei-chan. Everyone is just under a lot of pressure,” she said sternly at her partner. “Now, who can take me to Hatake?”

Sasuke started moving towards the door. As he passed Nanami he replied, “I’ll take you.” And Nanami followed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi is introduced in the next chapter ^o^  
> Sorry it took so long D:


	4. Officer Hatake

Sasuke led her down the hallway and down an elevator to a musky…basement? She wasn’t sure at this point, but only hoped that Sasuke was one of the good guys. The temperature dropped a little due to the concrete covered floors and walls. “He trains his dogs down here,” Sasuke interrupted her thoughts.

“Good for a second, I thought you were going to say he keeps dead bodies down here,” she joked nervously looking around and she could almost hear Sasuke’s eyes roll their sockets. She glared at the back of his black hair covered head then reminded herself that everyone was under a lot of pressure. She sighed aloud, the sound echoing off of the concrete walls.

“He’s behind those double doors,” Sasuke replied and came to a stop. “I’m going back up.”

“You aren’t going to make an introduction?” Nanami asked.

“Why? You scared of the boogie man or something?” Sasuke teased with a stupid smirk on his face. Nanami narrowed her eyes, fantasizing about knocking that smirk right off.

“No,” she replied stubbornly, “just think you’re being rude is all.” She crossed her arms and stuck her chin up. 

Sasuke snorted before heading back to the elevator. “Come back to the second floor breakroom when you get turned away,” he said as the elevator doors closed.

“Come back to the second floor breakroom when you get turned away,” Nanami mocked at the closed door. “Wow! What a jerk!” Nanami turned towards the double doors and felt about two feet smaller. Here goes nothing.

Nanami pushed the doors open revealing a sunny room. It must have been an add-on office because it was the only room down here that looked even remotely close to an office. The floor was lined with what looked like hard wood floors. The windows were high up towards the ceiling probably because the floor was on the bottom level. It definitely felt like a basement. Kennels lined the walls all the way up to a cut out in the wall that led to an actual office with a desk and a computer. She could smell coffee brewing from across the room.

He must have kept the place clean because she didn’t even smell the dogs. Any kennels she had been around usually reeked of dogs. As she scoured the room, she noticed a dog sleeping at the entrance of the office. Nanami walked forward, her black heals clacking against the floor. The dog’s ears perked up but he didn’t growl or move from his position. She hoped that he was friendly. She didn’t have it in her to sprint for her life today. “Hello?” she called out hoping to see this Hatake guy somewhere.

Nanami made it all the way to the doorway and the dog sat up but made no notions to move towards her. What he had of a tail wagged excitedly. She then saw a man with grey hair sitting in his chair, his head resting on the desk. Was he asleep? She watched the rise and fall of his body. It was slow so she figured he was. “Detective Hatake?” she called out a little louder and he stirred. She glanced at his computer screen. He had been working on what looked like a report, but she didn’t want to pry and forced her eyes to look away. 

Nanami reached out to try to get him to wake up, but the dog growled low. She pulled her hand away in response. It was obvious that touching him was not in question. “Detective Hatake,” she called louder and this time he opened his eyes. She noticed a scar ran down his left eye and he must have been cold because he had a scarf covering half of his face. 

The K9 officer sat up in his chair and rubbed his eyes sleepily. “I must have fallen asleep. Why didn’t you wake me up, Pakkun?” he asked; his voice sounded like gravel. Nanami swallowed hard and looked down at the dog that must have been Pakkun. She used every ounce of courage she had to clear her throat causing him to glance up at her. “And we had a guest. I hope you didn’t growl at her,” he said glaring down at his dog. Pakkun’s eyes shifted away knowing that he did.

“It was fine. He was just being protective of you,” she defended the dog and Pakkun looked up at her excitedly. He moved his front two paws, but didn’t move from his spot without his owner’s permission. He whined a little because the dog owner didn’t catch his hint.

“Pakkun, she doesn’t want you jumping on her,” he said almost like he knew what the dog was saying to him. Nanami bent down.

“May I?”

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt,” he replied smoothly and clicked around on his computer. “So what can I help you with?” he asked as Nanami reached out to pet his dog. 

“I’m Detective Shinya and I was hoping I could get your help on this missing person’s case,” she replied rubbing under Pakkun’s chin. 

“I’ve already done everything that I could,” he replied sounding extremely tired and leaned back in his chair placing his hands behind his head. 

Nanami stood up. “I don’t mean help with your dogs,” Nanami challenged and looked into his dark grey eyes. They almost looked black, but the light caught them just right. 

“Help with what then?” he asked with a hint of irritation in his voice. 

“I need to ask you about your partner.”

“I don’t have a partner. I work alone,” he stated and stood up. Pakkun went to his side immediately and the officer along with his dog walked over towards the kennels.

“Detective Hatake-“

“Officer,” he corrected. “I’m not a detective anymore.”

“Officer Hatake,” Nanami said with less patience in her voice. “You could help save three lives. One I know you used to hang out with.”

“Ah…Tenzo,” Hatake replied and looked as if he was remembering something and he dug around his pockets. He looked sad as he pulled a key out of his pocket and let out a greyhound with auburn colored hair similar to Nanami’s. Hatake reached down and rubbed his dog’s white snout and then moved to rub his white underside once he rolled over for him. 

“Were you close to him?” she prodded trying to get something out of him. 

“He was my friend,” he answered mindlessly. He went through the motions of taking care of his dogs, but Nanami knew he wasn’t really there. She could see his dark clouded eyes were drowning with torment.

“Was?” she tried prying further, her voice almost as low as a whisper.

“Was. You and I both know how it will all turn out,” he answered and put leashes on his dogs as if getting ready to take them for a walk.

“You don’t know that! If you don’t help me, then I can’t find him. I need your help Officer Hatake,” she tried to persuade him.

“We both know he’ll turn up dead,” he said with a haunted look in his eyes. Hatake started walking his dogs to the door. Nanami followed him not ready to give up yet.

“He definitely will if you don’t help me,” she argued and the man stopped in front of the elevator, the up arrow lit up as he pressed it.

“We’re done here,” he said matter-of-factly and the elevator doors opened. He guided his dogs in and faced her, reaching down to press a button for the floor he needed to go to. “You can take the next one.” The doors closed and Nanami watched as he disappeared behind the closed doors. 

She stood there replaying the conversation in her head, trying to understand where she went wrong, what she could have said differently. The chill of the basement surrounded her as she thought diligently about everything that had been said. Calculated thoughts scrambled through her brain, but one thing was for sure, all the victims now had a medical and police tie.  
*  
*  
*  
Nanami took the elevator up to the second floor and wandered around til she found the break room. Really all she had to do was follow the smell of burnt coffee. She wasn’t sure why cops didn’t know how to make their lifeblood without burning it. Sighing in defeat, she entered the room trying not to meet Sasuke’s eyes. She knew the ass was smug because she was turned away.

“How did it go?” Deidara asked her and Nanami motioned him over towards the coffee counter to get a cup. She didn’t want stupid Sasuke to overhear. 

“It was bad,” she answered. “That guy really doesn’t want to talk about anything. Whatever happened with his partner, I can tell it’s destroying him from the inside out…if it hasn’t already,” she continued as she stared sorrowfully into her caramel colored coffee.

Deidara put a soft hand on her shoulder and squeezed a little as if to comfort her. “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad. Give him a day to warm up to the thought of it and I’m sure he’ll come around. Besides, I don’t know very many men that can say no to that cute face,” he said and pinched her cheek. Nanami balled up her fist and punched his arm. 

“Do not do that at work!” she said angrily through her gritted teeth.

“So I can do that outside of work?” he pushed with a playful smirk on his face. He watched as Nanami’s blue eyes glazed over in fiery furry. “Kidding!” he interjected before she could swing at him again.

“You better be,” she said low enough so only he could hear and chills ran up his spine as if he was in real danger. Man, she was scary when she wanted to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	5. Mystery Man

After discussing the smallest amount of information that Nanami had confirmed with the K9 officer, the group had done some digging on each of the victims. Families were either called in for questioning or they were spoken to over the phone. Either way, not much was found as far as the Yakuza connection went. At this point, Nanami was exhausted from all the questioning and holding back the tears as some of the families openly cried in front of her. Not mentioning any names, but Lt. Sarutobi was definitely a mess. Nanami had used her softest voice possible when asking him questions. The poor man definitely wasn’t sleeping which had to be hard on his daughter as well. 

Nanami left the lieutenant’s office and closed the door quietly behind her. She leaned against the big stained glass doors and exhaled loudly. The academy never taught them how to handle these kinds of situations. It was sad to see so many families broken and distraught. Nanami peered down the hallway and saw what she knew to be Hinata’s husband and children. Her heart sank as she moved closer up the hall towards them. The husband looked up, looking completely lost for a second. She had seen him earlier and he looked stronger than she had expected, but it was probably just a front for his two kids. The boy was keeping his sister busy with a puzzle on the waiting area’s desk.

“Do you need a breather?” she asked him and he looked a little stunned. His eyes darted towards his kids and she could tell that he was scared to even let them leave his sight. She imagined that the fear of losing his kids was running though his mind.

“Uncle Neji!” the little girl cried and Nanami looked behind her to see the girl throw herself at her uncle’s legs. He reached down to swoop her up.

“Go on, Naruto, we can handle these two for a while,” Neji said reassuringly to his brother-in-law.

“S-Sure,” he stumbled a little, looking lost. 

“There’s a cot in that room over there,” Nanami whispered to him and pointed to a room in the corner. “Why don’t you try to sleep a little,” she suggested and noticed a tugging on her pant leg. Nanami looked down to see the little boy.

“Hey lady, let’s play go-fish!” he said excitedly and Nanami smiled. She wondered what the kids were thinking. Nanami sent a reassuring glance at Naruto and he sauntered over to the room, closing the door behind him. 

“Thanks for helping,” Neji said sitting down with his niece and nephew.

“Don’t mention it,” she returned and sat down, getting herself in the frame of mind to play kid games. “Sorry if I offended you earlier this morning with your cousin…”

“You’re just trying to see all angles which we needed. We’re too close to this case, but it’s hard to put our loved ones in someone else’s hands.”

Nanami shuffled the cards and dealt out the hands to the kids. “I think I can empathize.”

“I’m really glad that Lt. Sarutobi called you,” Neji admitted and Nanami blushed in response.

Nanami and Neji continued on with small talk and kept the kids busy for two hours before they quit and decided to get the kids something to eat. Instead of waking up Naruto, they made sure that Karin would tell Naruto where the kids were when he woke up. He was getting some much needed rest and they didn’t want to wake him just yet.

“Did you want to come with? It’s a little hard watching kids by myself,” Neji confessed as he picked up his niece named Himawari. His nephew, Boruto, grabbed her hand.

“Yeah lady! Come with us!” he interjected before she could say anything.

“Sure and you can stop calling me lady. My name is Nanami.”

“Nanami is too long. Can I just call you Nami?” he asked looking up at her with is huge blue eyes.

“Sure,” she replied and walked with Neji towards the elevator. 

“You sure your boyfriend won’t mind?” Neji asked looking amused. He pressed the button to go down so they could take the kids to the parking garage.

“Boyfriend? You mean my partner, Deidara?” she asked trying to connect the dots. The door opened and they all squeezed into the elevator. Boruto excitedly pressed the P button for parking and the doors closed. 

“You know for someone who is very observant, you miss a thing that’s right in front of your face.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your partner. He likes you.”

“Deidara?” she asked and thought about it only to dismiss the absurd idea. “Yeah right.”

Neji laughed a little in response and the elevator dinged as the doors opened. They shuffled the kids to an SUV and Neji whipped out keys. Nanami looked at him curiously. “These are Naruto’s,” he said noticing her looks. “I definitely wouldn’t drive this if I didn’t have these kids.”

“Makes sense,” she replied and attempted to help Boruto into the van. 

“I can do it, Nami,” he said waving her hands away from him. “You can sit by me.”

“No! No! Sit by me!” Himawari strained in her car-seat.

“Nanami is going to sit up front because she’s an adult,” Neji said and got into the van. Nanami followed sitting shotgun.  
*  
*  
*  
Nanami returned to the breakroom once she and Neji returned the kids to a grateful Naruto. He had looked a little better after he had gotten some rest. She hoped that he would get some more once he put the kids to bed later. He needed rest to be strong for those kids. 

“Where have you been?” Deidara eyed her accusingly. He sniffed a few times. “Did you eat McDonald’s?” 

“Any more questions and I’ll have to call my lawyer,” she teased him and Deidara sulked a little. 

“Well, it’s about time for us to leave for the night. Doesn’t look like anything else is going to pop up, but if it does Detective Inzuka will give us all a call so keep your phones on,” Shikamaru instructed. 

“Detective Inzuka works the night shift,” Deidara said answering her inquiring look. “You would know that if you didn’t disappear.”

“Will you stop already?”  
*  
*  
*  
Deidara and Nanami piled into the Camry and he took off into the night. “Can we stop somewhere?” Nanami asked suddenly.

“You want to stop?” Deidara asked.

“I need a drink after today,” she admitted. “Today was worse than I thought it would be. Although we made a lot of progress, it was very exhausting dealing with the families.”

“I bet,” Deidara replied giving her the side-eye. 

Nanami slapped him. “Ew! I did no such thing!” she yelled and looked out the window as Deidara snickered mischievously. He loved to provoke her; she should know better than to respond, but sometimes it was impossible to keep quiet.

Deidara pulled up at a bar down the street from her apartment complex. She didn’t normally go to this one, but honestly any bar would do the trick tonight. She was ready to have herself an old-fashioned and call it a day. Maybe she would even enjoy the cool air, if Deidara let her walk to her apartment. 

They both sauntered up to the bar and took a seat. The bartender was delivering a drink to a guy in the corner that looked oddly like Officer Hatake, but Nanami didn’t mention anything. She wasn’t a hundred percent sure since half his face was covered up and he wore a cap that covered what looked to be grey hair. “What can I get ya, sweethaht?” the bartender asked with a stereotypical jersey accent. 

“An old fashioned and a margarita,” Nanami replied and handed her a couple of bills. Deidara smirked because she had ordered his drink for him.

“It’s like you pay attention to me,” he gushed to himself and Nanami rolled her eyes. She couldn’t help but glance over to the corner where the mystery man was. She wanted to know if she was right. Before Deidara caught her staring, she looked away from the mystery man and towards the digital card game on the screen. She suspected that the mystery man was playing it, but didn’t sneak a glance back over at his table.

“Here ya go!” the waitress plopped the drinks in front of her and Deidara. Of course she assumed that Nanami was the one that wanted the margarita. She switched the two drinks and noticed Deidara ogling at the waitress’s cleavage. As if this dude had feelings for her; she mentally rolled her eyes. Neji was delusional.

Deidara and Nanami made small talk about their observations at work today. Once they finished their drinks, Deidara stood up and rustled his keys. “Ready to go?” he asked his partner.

“I think I’m going to stay for another. My apartment isn’t too far away,” she answered and Deidara frowned. 

“I can’t let my adorable partner walk home in the dark,” Deidara said dramatically and pinched Nanami’s cheeks. She balled her fist again, but then decided not to give Deidara the satisfaction of getting her riled up.

“You and I both know that I can take anyone,” she challenged and motioned for the waitress to bring another.

Deidara sighed. “Suit yourself. Don’t drink too much because I’m going to pick you up early,” he reminded her.

“Yes mother,” she muttered and noticed that the bartender was making a fucking margarita. She waived her hands to flag her down and Deidara sauntered out the door leaving his partner to her problems.

“Yes dearie?” the bartender asked noticing Nanami’s attempts to get her attention.

“I want the old fashioned. The margarita was for my friend,” Nanami corrected her.

“My bad,” she replied and started making the other drink.

“Hey, do you know who that man is in the corner over there?” she asked the bartender and slipped a twenty into the tip jar just as the waitress looked at her. She smiled.

“The card he pays with says Kakashi Hatake,” she answered and planted the drink in front of Nanami. “Anything else ya want to know?” she asked.

“Is he a regular?”

“Yeah, most nights he comes in here and orders a coupla’ beers. I know he plays cards too.”

“Thanks. That’s all,” Nanami replied and eyed Kakashi sitting in the corner. The waitress sauntered away her hips swaying, catching the eyes of the men sitting at the bar. Nanami choked back the disgust with a sip of her old fashioned. She was starting to feel brave enough to approach him after each sip of liquid courage. She didn’t know what she would say though. He obviously didn’t want to talk to her about his partner or about his friend Tenzo. He just wanted to sit in this bar like a ghost and play cards.

Nanami finally finished her drink and the bartender plopped another in front of her. “I didn’t order another one,” she replied a little confused, but the bartender walked away without acknowledging her.

“Are you going to stare at me all night or are you going to say hi?” a smooth voice said from beside her and Nanami jumped in surprise. She looked over to the corner and noticed that Kakashi wasn’t there anymore. 

“I-uh…um,” she was at a loss for words. Her heart beat rapidly and her palms started sweating a little. He was strikingly good looking up close. His eyes were dark and clouded either from the darkness of the bar or the darkness that consumed him at night. She couldn’t help but wonder which as the mystery of it all made her temperature rise. Her eyes drifted down his long scar that from started from his left eye and ran down his cheek, where it hid under the scarf that he was wearing. Her eyes lingered where she guessed his lips would be and wondered what it looked like underneath that wool scarf. She realized she was staring at what was probably his mouth and looked away as her face grew hot.

Kakashi looked at her amused and she sheepishly looked down at her drink and took an awkward sip. “You come here often?” he asked her trying to break the ice. She choked a little on her old fashioned.

“I don’t usually come to this bar, but with all the crime,” she said purposefully avoiding anything case related like kidnapping or victims, “I decided to drink closer to home.”

“That’s smart,” he replied looking impressed. She wasn’t sure if she should feel insulted or not. “So you live close by? How close?” he inquired and seemed to enjoy watching her squirm a little.

“Um…why all the questions all of a sudden? I was starting to think you hated them,” she retorted getting a little courage back.

Kakashi leaned towards her. “I don’t mind asking the questions,” he admitted lowering his voice. Nanami shivered as she felt his breath against the side of her neck.

“How about a trade then?” she asked while mentally telling her heart to calm the fuck down.

“Trade?” There was amusement in his eyes.

“I’ll answer your questions if you answer mine.”

“I’ll pass.”

“I promise not to ask about work,” Nanami replied quickly. Maybe she could get him to open up to her with regular, harmless questioning.

“In hopes that you’ll get me to open up?” he asked and Nanami blushed.

“Not at all,” she lied and took another large sip before confidently looking him in the eyes.

“Fine. So where do you live?” he asked her.

“The apartment complex down the street,” she answered honestly. His eyebrows rose.

“Weird. I live there too and I don’t remember ever seeing you there. You live at your boyfriends or something?”

“I work a lot and I don’t have a boyfriend,” she corrected him. “How many dogs do you have?”

“You said nothing work related,” Kakashi said narrowing his eyes at her. “Plus I didn’t ask my question. You can’t just skip me.”

“I didn’t. You asked if I had a boyfriend. And I figured the dog thing was okay to ask…I can tell by how you care for them that you live with them.”

“I guess you aren’t wrong,” he admitted and swished his drink around so that the ice clinked with the sides of the glass. She stared at him hoping to see under the scarf. Maybe he would take a drink and she would see? “I take three home with me every night.”

“Which three?”

“I alternate them.”

“Why?”

“It’s my turn,” he replied sounding triumphant. Nanami sunk her shoulders for a second realizing her mistake. “Would you like me to walk you home? It’s the least I can do after escaping your interrogation today.”

“Yeah, that was kind of rude. I probably shouldn’t have more alcohol anyways since Deidara is picking me up in the morning.”

“And he’s not your boyfriend?” he asked teasingly and placed a tip in the bartender’s jar. Kakashi stood up and placed his hands in his coat pockets. His scarf was almost at his eyeballs now.

“I’ll let that question slide and no, he isn’t,” she said grabbing her purse and slinging the small thing across her body. Nanami hated hand bags. She liked to walk around with her arms free so she went for purses or bags with a cross-strap. Kakashi held the door open for her and Nanami walked out into the brisk night. She tilted her head up towards to sky to where she knew the stars were, but the lights of the city blurred them out and made them hard to see.

Kakashi slowed his stroll down for her because Nanami was wearing heals still. She wasn’t really used to walking in them, but they weren’t so tall that she couldn’t manage. “So why do you alternate which dogs to bring home?” she asked breaking the almost awkward silence.

“Well as you know, our apartments are small and I love all the dogs. I can’t really manage any more than three in that small apartment,” Kakashi answered. She noticed that he was very observant. He walked by everyone as if memorizing their faces. He looked at license plates of cars that drove by and probably memorized their descriptions too.

“What made you want to be a cop?” he asked her suddenly.

She was a little shocked at the question because no one has really asked her that. “My father died in the line of duty. I just want to do right by him and get criminals off the street like he did.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Kakashi replied and looked solemnly ahead. He was probably thinking about his partner.

“I stopped being a detective when my partner’s wife was killed. He quit and I felt like I didn’t deserve the title of detective anymore.”

Nanami was surprised that he even mentioned it. After all he did say the case was off limits. “My door is right here,” she said trying to hide the regret in her voice and pointed towards her door. They were in front of the apartment complexes already.

“Alright,” Kakashi replied and waited for her to fish out her keys. She unlocked the door and looked at him. 

“Thanks for walking me home,” she told him sincerely and Kakashi looked at her with haunted eyes again. He reached over and pushed a piece of hair from the front of her face so he could fully see her eyes. His cold hands were so soft against her cheek she almost wanted to melt into his touch. 

“Anytime. I’ll see you around,” he said seeming distant, as if the last couple hours hadn’t happened.

Nanami watched as he walked down the front of the complex and up the stairs. She closed the door as soon as she couldn’t see him anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	6. Exhaustion

Deidara picked up Nanami bright and early the next morning. Deidara looked chipper as ever, but Nanami on the other hand, looked a little rough. “Did you even sleep?” Deidara asked eyeing the grocery sized bags underneath his partner’s eyes. Nanami pushed his face away.

“Leave me alone and just drive me to work,” she huffed and sunk into the leather seat of the Camry. She stared out the window thinking about everything that had happened last night. How Kakashi had bought her a drink and opened himself up for her to question him. She ruminated on his eyes alone and how they could look at her intrigued one minute, but look haunted and empty the next. The scar that ran down his face, she wondered what it was from and where it ended because the scarf was always covering his mouth. It was probably a perfect mouth.

“Who pissed in your cheerios?” Deidara wondered aloud and watched as his partner practically drooled against the window. “When did you go to sleep?” he inquired and shook her from her zombie-like daze. 

“I had problems sleeping,” she muttered and slumped against the window crossing her arms over her chest. A chest, that Deidara noticed, was popping out because she didn’t button her shirt right. He peered over catching a glimpse of a pink lacy bra underneath her black button down blouse.

“Deidara look out!” Nanami screamed and braced herself. The car in front of them had stopped abruptly and Deidara slammed on his brakes just barely missing the back bumper of the car in front of him. “Holy fuck! Pay attention!” 

“Well if you would button your shirt right I could!” he yelled back flustered by the near death experience.

“Button my shirt?” she glanced down and noticed that she clearly didn’t button anything right because her boobs were almost popping out. “You pervert! Stop looking at my chest!” 

“Don’t make it so that I can! I’m a man dammit! I have to look if it’s there!” he exclaimed and continued driving as Nanami fixed her shirt while also glaring at her partner at the same time. He didn’t dare look in her direction. He could feel the knife of her glare held up to his throat, daring him to look in her direction so she could kill him.

Thankfully Deidara finally got them to work with no more near death experiences. Nanami got out of the car and straightened her shirt to tuck it into her grey pencil skirt. She made sure that all the buttons were done up properly and then checked out her hair in the side mirror of the Camry. It wasn’t too bad this morning. She was able to just throw it up in a bun with a pearl band to go around it. “Trying to impress someone?” he asked and the fieriest of glares was thrown his way. “…nevermind,” he muttered and turned away before his face was burnt off.

As soon as they made it into the office, Deidara poured a cup of coffee and shoved it at his partner knowing that’s exactly what she needed. He knew by how she acted this morning, that when she woke up she only had enough time to get ready. He kind of wished that she would just text him that so he could bring her coffee and not have to worry about being murdered by her on the way to work. 

As Nanami sipped her coffee and slowly became a human again, she started heading towards the elevator. Deidara wanted to ask where she was going, but calculated that it may not be safe enough yet. Instead he went to the group office where they would continue to work the case. Whatever Nanami was doing, Deidara trusted that it was something she had to do in order to get closer to solving this mystery.  
*  
*  
*  
Another week went by and hardly any progress was made with the case. At this point, Nanami couldn’t even look Lt. Sarutobi or Mr. Uzumaki in the eyes anymore. She was honestly beginning to lose hope and her partner could sense it. They both had spent a lot of time at the bar after work drinking away the stress of the case and brainstorming together, but a few of the leads that they found had turned up to be dead ends.

Nanami closed her brief case and sighed as it clicked shut. She didn’t think she could live with herself if she couldn’t find these people. Boruto and Himawari crossed her mind and she felt her hands shake. Something had to be done. Unfortunately, Kakashi was no help. She had bothered him the day after the night out together only to be shut down by the empty shell of a man. After that he had vanished; she hadn’t seen him in days. “Ready to go?” Deidara asked softly as he closed up for the night. 

Nanami nodded not even having the energy to speak. She picked up her things, grabbed her briefcase, and followed Deidara on his way out. “Nanami!” a familiar voice called from down the hall. She glanced over to see Kakashi lazily jogging towards her to catch up. “Can I speak with you?” Kakashi asked expectantly and motioned his head towards an empty office. Nanami looked to Deidara and he nodded in approval to go ahead. She sighed and followed him into an office. Kakashi shut the door.

“What do you want?” she asked as she leaned against a desk that was sitting in the corner of the office. She was staring down at her shoes with her shoulders hunched in defeat. Kakashi froze for a second to study her. He noticed that Nanami had deep circles under her eyes that matched most of the guys’ in the office. Her hair was braided to the side, so many strands of hair sticking out like she’d been pulling it out for days. He felt guilty knowing that he should have told her what he’s been up to.

“I found some things that might help your case,” he finally replied. In that instant, Nanami looked up with hope in her eyes and he noticed that her knuckles turned white as she gripped her briefcase tighter.

“We can meet up tomorrow to discuss it. I think you should get some rest. You look rough,” Kakashi admitted and her cheeks grew red with embarrassment. 

“I’d like to discuss it now. I think enough time has been wasted,” she said with disdain. Kakashi sighed in response.

“Alight, we can talk about it on the ride home,” he replied and shoved his hands into his pockets. 

“Deidara is waiting to drive me home.”

“Right,” he replied and opened the door to the office. Deidara was standing not far down the hall. “Hey man,” he called out and Deidara looked over at the office towards Kakashi. “You can go on home. I’ll take Nanami home for you since we live in the same complex.”

Deidara jaw tightened in annoyance at Kakashi’s boldness. His fists tightened as he looked past Kakashi searching for Nanami who poked her head out from behind the grey-haired bastard. This guy thought that he could just swoop in and take his partner away from him. “I’ll be fine,” Nanami called looking more hopeful than before. Deidara caught the words on his tongue and decided to let Nanami go. He didn’t want to dim the light in her eyes that had been missing for days. Deidara relaxed his balled up fists, but his jaw remained tight.

“Alright then, drive safe,” he forced himself to say before heading out.

Kakashi turned towards Nanami, his eyes smiling. Again she thought about what was under his dark blue scarf. “My dogs are waiting for us, let’s go,” Kakashi said turning towards the hallway and making his way to the parking garage. Nanami followed him wondering about the mysteries that were covered up by that scarf. As they made their way to the parking garage, she wondered if he wore it during the summer. Would she ever see his face?

“You’re awfully quiet,” Kakashi noticed. “What’s on your mind?”

The question caught her off guard and she looked away as her face heated up. “Just wondering which dogs you’re taking home today,” she lied quickly and exhaled with relief when he didn’t question her. As they approached the parking garage, Nanami noticed three dogs sitting by a pickup truck as if they were guarding it. Neither of them moved as they two approached the vehicle. Nanami could tell that they were excited to see their partner again by the wagging of their tails. 

“Good job, boys,” Kakashi called out fishing a couple treats out of his pocket. He threw each of them a treat; their jaws excitedly clamped around it. Kakashi opened the passenger door and held out his hand. Nanami gritted her teeth to keep from smiling like a goon. She took his hand and he helped her into the pickup, closing the door as she got settled into her seat. “Sorry boys, you’ll have to ride in the back,” she heard him tell his dogs. They all scampered into the truck bed as Kakashi let down the tail gate. 

Once they were all situated, Kakashi started up the truck and began their ride to the complex. Kakashi carefully navigated his way out of the parking garage and turned onto the busy street. “I guess I should start out by telling you that I took the dogs to a couple places that Tenzo hangs out. I ended up finding something interesting that might help us,” he said and glanced over at Nanami when she didn’t respond. Nanami was leaning against the window, her face and shoulders relaxed. Kakashi smiled warmly and continued driving. He made sure to drive as smoothly as possible so he wouldn’t wake her. She really put her all into this case if she was that exhausted and he was going to let her rest. They could discuss everything in the morning even though they were both off, but if she was going to be this committed then he would be too.

The truck came to a stop and Kakashi got out and managed to quietly close his door. He let the dogs out before moving to the passenger side to grab Nanami. As he carefully opened the door, he stuck his arm in to hold her so that she wouldn’t fall. He carefully shifted his weight and put an arm under the bend in her knees while supporting her back with his other arm. “Close the door when we move far enough away,” he commanded his largest dog, Bull. 

At this point, Kakashi didn’t want to rummage in her clothes to find her keys because he was afraid of waking her. Instead he opted to take her to his apartment and let her enjoy the comforts of his room while he settled in on the couch with his dogs. As he bent down to lay her on his bed, she nuzzled further into his chest and sighed. Kakashi could feel his body warming up to the girl and he quickly pushed the idea away. He laid her gently on his bed and pulled the covers up to keep her warm. As he straightened and made his way to the living room he heard a small scratch at the door. It was Bull’s quiet signal for Kakashi to let him in.

Kakashi let his massive dog inside and then made a bed for himself on the couch. His other two dogs, Akino and Guruko, settled in by his feet while Bull strutted over to Kakashi’s bedroom. Kakashi sent his dog a strict look and Bull huffed and decided against settling in on the bed at Nanami’s feet. Instead the dog plopped down on the floor beside her and rested his head on his crossed legs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! :)


	7. New Partnership

Nanami woke to the smell of coffee, the aroma filled her brain with temptation as she turned over and stuck her head underneath the blankets which smelled of a weird but charming mixture of lavender dryer sheets and woodsy scents. The smell reminded her of Kakashi, the mysterious K-9 officer, whom she didn’t have the pleasure of working with yet. He had given her a ride home last night with the promise of helping her out with the case and then…then…

Nanami opened her eyes and threw back the blankets as she sat up in shock. She wasn’t at home and she didn’t remember anything after Kakashi had started the truck. She had fallen asleep. Embarrassed by the thought of him seeing her snore or worse, drool, she buried her head under a pillow. “Do you like your coffee black?” a voice inquired from the doorway and Nanami peeked from under the pillow to see Kakashi standing tall in the doorway. He learned up against the doorframe, with a plaid pair of pants and a baggy grey t-shirt on. His feet were bare and when she glanced up towards his face, it was sadly covered by a scarf. This time it was a dark grey one.

“Do you have hazelnut creamer?” 

“I think I do,” Kakashi replied turning back towards the kitchen. “I left some clothes on the chair by the bed in case you wanted to get out of your office clothes.”

Nanami looked down at herself and indeed she was still wearing her clothes from yesterday. She felt a little gross so she got up and tread over to the chair scooping up the clean clothes. They smelled just like the sheets did. Scanning the room, she noticed a cracked door that led to the bathroom. Realizing that she wanted to shower, she moved towards the bathroom and turned on the water closing the door behind her.

The bathroom was surprisingly clean for a man’s. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror and noticed how horrible her braid looked after sleeping in it. She sighed before taking her hair down and undressing so that she could hop into the shower.  
*  
*  
*  
Nanami felt clean and warm in Kakashi’s clothes. He had given her sweat pants that were pretty long for her, but she rolled them at the bottom so she wouldn’t trip. He gave her a dark blue T-shirt and a thick pullover hoodie. She was glad he did, not only because it was cold, but she didn’t have a clean bra to wear. Thankfully she didn’t think he would be able to tell with the hoodie on. Nanami walked into the living room and the dogs glanced up at her. “You could have woken me up last night,” she told Kakashi and pulled at the bottom of the hoodie nervously. 

“I know, but I could tell you were exhausted. If I had woken you up, you would have insisted that we work on the case.”

“You’re right.”

“Aren’t you glad you got some sleep though? Now we can discuss everything after a full night’s rest.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she replied as Kakashi handed her a cup of coffee that smelled of hazelnut. She took a seat on the couch and one of Kakashi’s dogs dragged over a blanket and dropped it by her feet. He was the largest dog she had seen so far. 

“That’s Bull,” Kakashi’s silky voice came from behind her giving her goosebumps. “He guarded you in your sleep. It seems he’s taken a liking to you which is rather unusual. To be honest, I don’t think he even likes me that much.” Kakashi laughed lightly which was music to her ears.

“Thank you, Bull,” she told the dog and Bull laid down in front of her looking content. Nanami grabbed the blanket that he’d brought her and covered her legs with it. She felt so comfortable, almost like she belonged here. She quickly brushed the thought away as she felt a blush creeping up onto her cheeks. Almost having an aneurism, she switched gears forcing herself to think of the case. “What did you want to tell me about the case?”

Kakashi moved over to the other side of the couch and sat down. He reached over to his remote for the television in order to mute whatever crazy gameshow was on at the moment. Before answering the question, he took a quick sip of his coffee, as if to collect his thoughts. “As I was saying last night before I realized that you had fallen asleep, I took the dogs to a couple places that Tenzo hangs out. I ended up finding something interesting that might help us.”

Nanami almost jumped off the couch with excitement, but she quickly thought of Bull who was by her feet. He glanced up as if sensing her excitement and exhaled heavily. “So what did you find?” she asked and Kakashi noticed a light in her eyes. 

He thought it was charming and her determination to solve this case was more than attractive to him. He could only imagine how her partner felt, knowing that he didn’t have a chance. She didn’t even notice the poor guy, but he definitely wasn’t going to complain. “I found evidence that opens another angle. This whole time we have assumed that they were abducted from work since they are all medical personnel however, I found Tenzo’s medical badge by a dumpster in an alley close to his house. The alley is next to a small shop that he used to go to after late hours at the hospital.”

“I wonder what would have made him walk into an alley at night,” Nanami pondered aloud.

“I’m not too sure, but we have things to look into now,” Kakashi countered. “We should probably get with family members and ask about any alleys close to the victims’ points of interest. It would be a safe bet to start closer to their homes.”

“We should also check video cameras on that street to see if they picked anything up. We could probably get a clue or a glimpse of something to put us on the right track,” Nanami suggested and drank some more of her coffee.

“I’ll call the city and see if they can get the tapes ready. It probably wouldn’t hurt to notify the store as well in case they have something valuable on their cameras too,” Kakashi said and stood up, moving towards the table. 

“While you’re doing that, I’m going to go change so we can make some progress on this case. I’ll be back in a few,” Nanami replied and carefully stood up, making sure not to step on Bull. Nanami moved towards to door and Bull stood up to follow. 

“Bull, I don’t think she wants you to bother her,” Kakashi lectured and Bull made a huge huff.

“It’s okay. I enjoy the company,” Nanami replied and left taking the huge dog with her.

After Nanami was fully dressed and ready to go she knocked on the door to Kakashi’s apartment waiting for him to answer. Bull stood loyally by her side, glancing around at their surroundings as if on guard duty. Kakashi opened the door, his eyes smiling. She was sure his mouth would be too, if she could see it, but unfortunately he always had it hidden with a scarf. “Ready to roll?” he asked and jangled his keys in the air.

“Sure,” Nanami answered and waited as Kakashi locked up his apartment. He surprisingly didn’t say anything to Bull, she guessed it was because the dog liked her so much and he probably wanted to take a work dog with him anyways.

“I called Detective Inzuka since he’s on duty. He should be calling the families to get a list of possible locations to look. I instructed him to write down any locations that had secluded areas like alleys or maybe run-down buildings by them. He can help narrow our search while we check out these cameras,” Kakashi told her as they walked to his truck. He opened the door for her again causing her to blush. She got in and buckled up as Bull once again rode in the back.

On the way to the convenience store located by Tenzo’s house, Nanami tried her best not to look over at Kakashi. She mostly stared out the window biting her lip nervously as she tried to think of other things besides how attractive and chivalrous he was. 

Once they arrived at the store, the two detectives walked inside with Bull following despite what Kakashi said. Nanami wondered if Bull was even a trained dog at this point. He never seemed to listen to Kakashi or maybe he did when it mattered. Kakashi sighed in resignation as he went to speak with the store manager. While she waited, Nanami took a quick look around the store before being motioned to the back by Kakashi and the store manager. They moved into a back room where there was a small office with a desktop computer. It was open with the video footage ready to be played. 

“This is footage from three weeks ago. It’s the night we suspect he went missing. Tenzo was supposed to work the next day, but never showed up. It wasn’t until two days later that the hospital reported him missing,” Kakashi said as he sat down at the desk. Nanami moved to stand behind him and leaned in to try to get as much as she could out of the video.

Kakashi hit play and felt Nanami move in close behind him. He got a small whiff of the shampoo he used, but it smelt a little different on her. It was mixed with a something floral and it made his insides twist with excitement. They both watch the video making note of anything unusual. In the video, Tenzo walked in and went over to the beer fridge grabbing a six pack before heading back towards the counter. On the way, he grabbed a small package of noodles and then placed the two items on the counter. As the cashier was ringing him up, Tenzo’s phone rang and he seemed indifferent. Nothing unusual seemed to be going on. After he paid, he walked out of the store still on the phone.

“We need to look at the city’s footage to really get anything,” Nanami analyzed. “It probably wouldn’t hurt to figure out who he was talking to and to see if they heard or suspected anything.”

“It’s almost like you’re reading my mind,” Kakashi admitted and turned to look at his new partner. Her face was so close to his that his eyes automatically moved down to her perfect pink lips. He quickly glanced away and cleared his throat standing up to leave. “Mr. Takanawa if you wouldn’t mind, we would like a copy of this for evidence.”

“Of course. I already made a copy so please take it,” the store manager replied and Kakashi removed the disc from the computer, carefully placing it in a disc sleeve. He then handed it to Nanami, who placed it safely inside her briefcase.

They both thanked the store manager before heading back to the truck. As soon as Nanami was in the truck, she called her partner to give him a task. “Dei-chan, can you get a warrant for Tenzo’s phone records?”

“Sure,” Deidara replied and Kakashi started up the truck. “Where are you?”

“I just left a convenience store. I’ll fill you in later. I need a rush on those records if possible,” she replied. Deidara acknowledged the task and hung up.  
*  
*  
*  
Kakashi and Nanami met up with someone from the city in order to review the tapes. Instead, they just provided them with a copy for evidence. Nanami placed the disc in her briefcase before they headed back to the truck. “Should we go to the office to watch it?” she asked as Kakashi started the truck.

“Nah, we can analyze it back at my place,” he replied. “Unless you would be more comfortable watching it somewhere else,” he quickly added.

“Your place is fine,” she admitted with a small blush on her face. Kakashi smiled under his scarf, finding her reactions to be quite cute.


End file.
